Anylitical Essay Topic the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency...

Alexander McCall Smith, the author of the award winning novel The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency spoke in a recent interview in The Sydney Morning Herald (December 2006) about his famously optimistic views of Africa and its people. The works of many African authors express rather grim and bleak views in comparison to McCall Smith’s view. In a â€Å"Foreign Correspondent† interview McCall Smith says Botswana is a very beautiful country and that Africa transformed him into a best selling novelist and made him famous for his views on hope and optimism. There is a strong sense of family and community that gives cause for belonging, hope and optimism. McCall Smith creates hope and optimism in his novel through his characters and their events. The†¦show more content†¦He says of the white man He was a good man and he listened to me carefully when I told him that I would have to go. There was no other white man I could have spoken to like that, but he understood (McCall Smith 2003, 24) Obed also gives a sense of hope when a white man finally shakes hand with a black man ‘So I called him my brother, which is the first time I had done that to a white man’ (McCall Smith 2003, 25) showing that two races of people that have had so many transgressions in the past have now joined to give cause to optimism. Obed has had his life span shortened due to the fact that he is working in the mines and breathing in the dust has eaten away his chest. He is sad not for his own body but The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be leaving Africa when I die. I love Africa, which is my mother and my father. I shall miss the smell of Africa (McCall Smith 2003, 15) McCall Smith shows that Obed is positive about living in Africa and he is a great example of optimism through his story. Mma Ramotswe is disappointed in her first month in opening her detective agency because she has a loss in profits but has hope that things will pick up for her. She has been given an opportunity when a very rich man, Mr Patel called her for a job ‘Mma Ramotswe was delighted when she received the telephone call from Mr Patel’ (McCall